Weed Tea Fertilizer Part 1

On the weekend my Uncle came to visit and while he may not be as able bodied as he once was he is still full of a lot of gardening and homesteading wisdom. He introduced us to something we had never much thought about or knew much about which is home made liquid fertilizer.

So the next day we went outside and raided the weed and nettle filled garden bed we hadn't touched since we moved in so there was plenty to choose from! Lots of chickweed, thistles and an abundance of stinging nettles too. We decided to do 2 batches one a mix of everything and two one of just nettle and after its sat for a week I'm going to open them up and give them a stir and I think I might add some sheep poo to the mixed batch. Mmm Its going to smell good huh!

Ok so here's what you will need:

-bucket or drum preferably with a good fitting lid to stop the stench escaping and help with fermentation
-weeds
-water
Seriously that's all you really need, I used a few extras though:

-gloves and secateurs if dealing with nettles
-weight to hold weeds down under the water/liquid

So all you do is fill your bucket up with your weeds of choice and then once full fill with water, set aside, place you weight if using one on top of the weeds to hold under the water/liquid and place you tight sealing lid on top because it will get smelly plus it will help with the fermentation.
That's it! It's really that simple! I was so excited to know its so easy to make a totally natural liquid fertilizer just out of the weeds in my garden!

 So its coming up to a week since I put the brew together so I'm going to open them up on the weekend and give them a stir and add some sheep poo to the mixed weed batch then chuck the lids back on and again in a week give another stir and after then it should be about ready, from what I have read it takes about 3-4 weeks for the weeds to break down.

Once ready you strain off the liquid from the solids and there you have your liquid concentrate and you throw the solids into the compost but just be aware that any seeds present may still remain viable even after the fermentation.

I'm also not sure on the ratio of the weed tea brew concentrate to water but once complete but I will update on all of this in Part 2 (possibly 3) of this blog post which will be coming up in the next week or so.

We've made it! I'm home.

We have actually done it. 

We made our big move interstate to start a fresh, our new life, a new beginning for all. 

It was literally less than 2 years ago we where at rock bottom financially and emotionally after a long hard slog of bad luck, bad decisions and unfortunate events, at the time it was hell and looking back I don't know how we survived it but it was this hideous time in our lives that pushed us to turn our dreams into reality. 

A new job opportunity came up for Pappa B so we though life is too short, stop making excuses, stop fearing change and make our move and that is how quickly we turned our life around. 

So here we are, our new house in a new town, in a totally different state and we have never been happier. 

We have been here for a few weeks now and already made some small changes we just couldn't help ourselves. We installed 2 new water tanks, added some new fruit trees to the already existing ones, started the veggie beds, planted out the herb garden, got 2 chooks to start us off mostly so we have something to do with our food scraps but several more ordered for a few months time. 

I've got big plans with chooks!! 

We have also been out and about enjoying meeting new people and hopefully the start of new friendships. 

I went to a sourdough workshop which I thoroughly enjoyed the first week we were here and just this last week the kids and I went to both the natural learners groups in the area the Huon Natural learners and the Hobart natural learners co-op. The kids especially enjoyed the pirate activities and craft at the Hobart Natural learners co-op which was inspired by international talk like a pirate day. 

So anyway I'll leave you with some photos from the leaving Vic to our arrival in Tas, I hope to blog  weekly. Sometimes it may be more, sometimes it may be less.